69 citations. January 2011 to present

Prepared: March 2012

A common crop generated tremendous controversy on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanganyika, in the 1930s. Eleusine coracana, better known as finger millet, had for centuries been a staple to the Chagga-speaking peoples of the mountain, used almost wholly for the production of an alcoholic brew called mbege.(1) Notably, most farmers cultivated the grain not in either of the two rainy seasons, but rather in the dry season months using irrigation. In the period in question, British colonial officials, scientists, missionaries, and settlers joined in condemning eleusine. They called on Chagga farmers to abandon the crop entirely, citing its inherent "immorality," its lack of market value, its potential to poison other crops, and its links to water wastage and soil erosion. Initially, most ignored these requests, and continued to cultivate and even expand their production. Starting in the 1940s, however, farmers began to abandon eleusine. As late as 1945, an estimated 30,000 families on the slopes, about 80 percent of the population, cultivated the crop.(2) Twenty years later it had disappeared from the lower slopes, and by 1980 eleusine could be found only in sporadic plots in the foothills. Today, many people cannot recall ever having seen it. In the words of Kilimanjaro's regional agricultural officer interviewed in 2004, "millet is gone."(3)

Copyright 2011, African Studies Center

Benedict C. Late Imperial China 32(1): 13-48, 2011. (80 refs.)

Tobacco entered Manchuria on the same wave of early modern globalization that brought it from the Americas to other parts of Eurasia in the early seventeenth century. Introduced into northeast Asia sometime after 1600, it began to circulate widely in Manchuria precisely at a time when Hong Taiji (1592-1643) was building the early Qing state. This essay examines Hong Taiji's efforts to criminalize tobacco in the 1630s and 1640s, arguing that these prohibitions were largely directed at gaining state control over a valuable economic resource. However, within the commercialized milieu of seventeenth-century Liaodong, a region with ties to broader transregional circuits of trade, tobacco's lucrative profits and its pleasurable allure simply overpowered state efforts to monopolize it. As in most other early seventeenth-century Eurasian societies, the Qing tobacco bans quickly gave way to legalization and taxation.

Copyright 2011, Johns Hopkins University Press

Blum D. The Chemist's War: The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences. Slate February 19, 2010. (0 refs.)

This article tells the little known story of federal enforcement efforts during Prohibition. Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000. One of its most outspoken opponents, Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner of New York City during the 1920s, liked to say, it was "our national experiment in extermination." Prohibition did not eliminate drinking, people continued to drink-and in large quantities. Alcoholism rates soared; insurance companies charted the increase at more than 300 more percent. Speakeasies promptly opened for business. Street gangs expanded its bootlegging empires built on smuggling, stealing, into manufacturing illegal alcohol. Rigorous enforcement had slowed he smuggling of alcohol from Canada and other countries. But crime syndicates responded by stealing massive quantities of industrial alcohol and redistilling it to make it potable. [Prior to Prohibition, laws had been passed to require industrial alcohol to contain poisons to prevent its use as a beverage.] To sell stolen industrial alcohol, the liquor syndicates employed chemists to "renature" the products, returning them to a drinkable state. Stolen and redistilled alcohol became the primary source of liquor in the country. In response, the federal government ordered manufacturers to make their products far more deadly, by including methyl alcohol, up to 10 percent of total product. It was the methanol that proved most deadly.

Copyright 2010, The Slate Group, The Washington Post

Blum D. The Chemist's War: The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences. Slate February 19, 2010. (0 refs.)

This article tells the little known story of federal enforcement efforts during Prohibition. Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000. One of its most outspoken opponents, Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner of New York City during the 1920s, liked to say, it was "our national experiment in extermination." Prohibition did not eliminate drinking, people continued to drink�and in large quantities. Alcoholism rates soared; insurance companies charted the increase at more than 300 more percent. Speakeasies promptly opened for business. Street gangs expanded its bootlegging empires built on smuggling, stealing, into manufacturing illegal alcohol. Rigorous enforcement had slowed he smuggling of alcohol from Canada and other countries. But crime syndicates responded by stealing massive quantities of industrial alcohol and redistilling it to make it potable. [Prior to Prohibition, laws had been passed to require industrial alcohol to contain poisons to prevent its use as a beverage.] To sell stolen industrial alcohol, the liquor syndicates employed chemists to "renature" the products, returning them to a drinkable state. Stolen and redistilled alcohol became the primary source of liquor in the country. In response, the federal government ordered manufacturers to make their products far more deadly, by including methyl alcohol, up to 10 percent of total product. It was the methanol that proved most deadly.

Copyright 2010, The Slate Group, The Washington Post

Bradburn D. The visible fist: The Chesapeake tobacco trade in war and the purpose of empire, 1690-1715. William and Mary Quarterly 68(3): 361-386, 2011. (58 refs.)

From 1690 to 1715, more than eighty-five British ships of war and sixteen thousand sailors served in the Chesapeake. Their presence had been orchestrated, with the support of the crown and the Admiralty, by a combination of Virginia planters and London tobacco merchants to protect and regulate the trade in tobacco during King William's and Queen Anne's Wars. This system of regulation-the convoy and embargo regime-required coordinated embargoes and stiff restrictions on the timing and character of the trade, which ultimately limited access to only those merchants and planters with the political connections to secure a place in the convoy fleet. The restrictions on the trade limited the size of the sweet-scented crop that reached England in these years, increased the price available in London, and created the possibility for extremely high net returns to those privileged planters and merchants. These coercive trading conditions transformed the character of the London tobacco trade and allowed "the first families of Virginia" to separate and dominate the colony's political and economic landscape. But the benefits of the London merchant-Virginia planter alliance would only last as long as wartime conditions persisted, and peace would reveal the two groups' different interests. In addition to greatly affecting the development of the Chesapeake, the creation and management of the convoy and embargo regime during this period of warfare helps reveal a major aspect of state formation and governance in the emerging British imperial state.

This book reviews the efficacy of treatment approaches and interventions that are tailored to working with addicted women, while providing a feminist approach to understanding the experience of addiction from the female perspective. Organized in three parts, Part I provides an overview of feminist theory and addiction counseling, followed by an historical look at women and addiction (in terms of research, treatment, demographics). The three chapters in Part II provide an in-depth look at the biological, psychological, and social factors of the experience of addiction as unique in women. The final section of the book, Part III, includes a series of chapters spanning the lifespan, these include age-specific special issues, treatment strategies, interventions, and commonly encountered topics in therapy.

The author tells the story of how Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was established in Ireland - the first European country to start an AA group - in 1946, and how it gradually came to establish itself as a mainstream Irish institution, the need for which has become clearer as alcohol consumption levels increase. AA is described as a hybrid institution, straddling healthcare and religion, and the book looks in detail at how early Irish members negotiated working relationships with the mental health system and the dominant Catholic Church. The book also focuses on AA's commitment to the avoidance of conventional, organizational management systems, involving clearly-identified leaders and top-down instructions for front-line members. The survival of AA in Ireland, as elsewhere, is attributed primarily to the fact that it has remained firmly outside of alcohol politics, seeing itself as a 'fellowship' which exists only to help individuals who seek its help in relation to their own powerlessness over alcohol. It is recognized, paradoxically, that AA in Ireland could not have negotiated such a smooth entry to this country without the energies and skills of its early leaders, and this book documents the activities of these leaders who - with the assistance of AA in the United States - strategically managed the fellowship's establishment in a potentially hostile environment.

Copyright 2011, Project Cork

Butler S. Addiction counsellors in the Republic of Ireland: Exploring the emergence of a new profession. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy 18(4): 295-302, 2011. (31 refs.)

This article reviews the emergence and expansion of addiction counselling as a specialist form of professional practice with problem drinkers and drug users in Ireland, over the past 30 years. It sees addiction counselling as having its roots in a widely shared disenchantment with the ''medical model'' of addiction treatment, and identifies the main factors which have shaped the growth of this new profession over this period. It is argued that statutory health authorities have largely allowed addiction counselling to evolve in an ad hoc style: ceding maximum discretion to individual counsellors and teams of counsellors, while making minimal efforts to standardize counsellor training or to integrate the counsellors'' work into a broader, coherent health service response. Reference is made to attempts currently under way to establish statutory registration systems for addiction counsellors in this country, which, if successful, should raise standards of practice and provide greater protection for members of the public availing themselves of such services. It is also argued, however, that both statutory registration and implementation of Tiered Care models of service delivery are likely to reduce the level of autonomy which addiction counsellors have traditionally enjoyed vis-a-vis service managers.

Alcohol dependency (alcoholism) has existed throughout recorded history. It remains a highly stigmatized illness, looked down on by society, the patients themselves, and the medical establishment. Science defines alcoholism as a primary progressive illness with a powerful genetic predisposition, highly amenable to intervention, evaluation, and treatment, and responsive to continuing care like other chronic illnesses. Society, led by an educated medical community, needs to revisit the disease of alcoholism, challenge its outdated assumptions and prejudices, and embark on a new course with the goals of positively affecting these patients, their families, and communities and improving the nation's health.

Copyright 2011, W. B. Saunders

Coclanis PA. Tobacco road: New views of the early Chesapeake. William and Mary Quarterly 68(3): 398-404, 2011. (21 refs.)

Two of the major transformations that took place in Virginia during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries were the adoption of slave labor to produce a staple commodity (tobacco) and the emergence of a gentry class that built its wealth, power, and social influence on both slavery and export of this crop. The reasons and timing of the transition to slavery and the nature of the planters' consolidation of power within the British Empire have long been subjects of keen interest and debate. In this Forum these two major transformations are given close scrutiny by John C. Coombs and Douglas Bradburn. Coombs challenges the generally accepted notion that the use of enslaved labor spread only gradually during the first sixty years of the colony's history before increasing rapidly in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Bradburn examines the critical role played by the English state in intervening in the tobacco trade, part of a new system that transformed Atlantic commerce, allowed a small group of Virginia elites to consolidate their power, and sowed the seeds of future misunderstanding between Britain and the colonies. Six commentators address the two essays' interpretive arguments and the larger historiographical issues.

This book provides a thorough and thoughtful economic analysis of the problems related to alcohol use. It examines the various efforts at alcohol control, as well as the efforts undertaken to reduce the social costs, as in efforts to reduce drunk driving and curb youth drinking. However, the impact of these is essentially negligable. In reviewing alcohol policy, the element that has been overlooked is supply side. Alcohol is an inexpensive commodity. Alcohol is far cheaper and more available than it was in the 1950s and 1960s. Public health and economic research over several decades has demonstrated that higher alcohol excise taxes and other supply restrictions are effective but under-utilized policy instruments. In light of this the author discusses the pros and cons of possible interventions, with attention to regulating supply and taxing the alcohol industry. These have been shown to reduce the associated problems accompanying drinking, while having minimal impact on those who are moderate, non-problemmatic drinkers.

The Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, Australia, was established in 1819 to accommodate male convicts, but in later years the building served as a depot for immigrant women (1848-86) and as an asylum for destitute women (1862-86). The occupation of the latter group in particular resulted in the loss of large numbers of clay tobacco pipes under the floorboards. The quantity and distribution of the pipes is used here to examine smoking behavior among the destitute female inmates, and to assess their relationships with each other and the institution in which they were confined.

New York City experienced the first and largest HIV epidemic among injecting drug users (IDUs). Using data collected from IDUs entering the Beth Israel drug detoxification program, we trace the history of this epidemic from the mid-1970s through the early 2000s. The epidemic can best be described in terms of successive stages: (1) introduction and rapid transmission of HIV in the IDU population; (2) stabilization of HIV prevalence at a high level (over 50%); (3) a decline in incidence and prevalence, following large-scale implementation of syringe exchange programs; and (4) a sexual transmission phase, in which HIV prevalence is approximately equal among injecting and noninjecting heroin and cocaine users, and sexual transmission is more important than injecting-related transmission among IDUs. Given the current spread of HIV among IDUs in many places in the world, New York City provides a very strong example for implementation of large-scale comprehensive syringe exchange programs as early as possible in HIV epidemics among IDUs.

Seldom does a single individual have such a profound effect on the development of a scientific discipline as Erminio Costa had on neuropharmacology. During nearly sixty years of research, Costa and his collaborators helped established many of the basic principles of the pharmacodynamic actions of psychotherapeutics. His contributions range from defining basic neurochemical, physiological and behavioral properties of neurotransmitters and their receptors, to the development of novel theories for drug discovery. Outlined in this report is a portion of his work relating to the involvement of monoamines and GABA in mediating the symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders and as targets for drug therapies. These studies were selected for review because of their influence on my own work and as an illustration of his logical and insightful approach to research and his clever use of techniques and technologies. Given the significance of his work, the legions of scientist who collaborated with him, and those inspired by his reports, his research will continue to have an impact as long as there is a search for new therapeutics to alleviate the pain and suffering associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Trends in Neuropharmacology: In Memory of Erminio Costa'.

Historical scholarship in traditional geopolitics often relied on documents authored by states and by other influential actors. Although much work in the subfield of critical geopolitics thus far has addressed imbalances constructed in official, academic, and popular media due to a privileging of such narratives, priority might also be given to unearthing and bringing to light alternative geopolitical perspectives from otherwise marginalized populations. Utilizing the early-1970s case of the United States' first 'war on drugs,' this article examines the geopolitics of opium-poppy eradication and its consequences within Turkey. Employing not only archival and secondary sources but also oral histories from now-retired poppy farmers, this study examines the diffusion of U.S. antinarcotics policies into the Anatolian countryside and the enduring impressions that the United States and Turkish government created. In doing so, this research gives voice to those farmers targeted by eradication policies and speaks more broadly to matters of narcotics control, sentiments of anti-Americanism, and notions of democracy in Turkey and the region, past and present.

Cultivated in the Eastern Mediterranean region for millennia, the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) was profoundly significant in the economies, ecologies, cultures, and diets of the peoples of many towns and villages of rural Anatolia. When the United States compelled Turkey to eradicate cultivation of the plant in the early 1970s in order to diminish the flow of heroin into America, farmers were obliged to deal with not only changes in their incomes but also profound changes in their relationships with the land and the state. Although Turkish officials later allowed production to resume in a highly controlled manner for pharmaceutical purposes, significant socioeconomic and ecological dimensions of Turkey's poppy-growing communities were forever changed. Interviewing now-retired poppy farmers, I employ oral history as my primary source of historical evidence to reconstruct these past ecologies and associated social relationships and to give voice to the informants.

The aim of this study was to explore the current functioning of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA), Ireland's largest and best-known temperance movement which has been in existence since 1898. Although initially intended as a small and relatively elitist organization, the PTAA succeeded in attracting and retaining large numbers of members until the 1960s, when it started to go into decline against the backdrop of incremental but influential changes in both the country's drinking habits and its religious culture. Drawing on qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews with the association's leadership, the study looked at how the association understood the concept of religious temperance, how it viewed its adaptation to a radically changed external environment and how clearly it defined its aims and functions. The findings indicate that while individual members still experience membership of the PTAA as spiritually meaningful and a source of support from like-minded Catholics, there is considerable confusion and disagreement at an organizational level as to what the overall goals of the association are. In particular, there is no consensus as to whether or how the PTAA should contribute as a stakeholder or lobbyist in relation to the drafting and implementation of national alcohol policy. It is concluded that, from an organizational perspective, the major task for the association is to clarify its primary aims so as to answer the question in this article's title: ''What are we about''?

Copyright 2011, Taylor & Francis

Felling T. Cocaine Nation: How the White Trade Took Over the World. New York: Pegasus Books, 2010

The author, a documentary filmmaker, who has done much work in Colombia, turns to the country's main illegal export. (In the opening chapter, we learn about the original 19th-century coca use: The modern-day [Coke] can's red and white livery, taken from the colours of the Peruvian flag, is the only reminder of Coca-Cola's Andean origins. Following the discussion of the cultivation, distribution, and use of cocaine, it counts the drug's dramatic rise in sales and traces traffic from Colombian coca fields to Miami, Kingston, Tijuana, London, and New York. He follows consumers, traders, producers, police officers, doctors, and custom officials. The book is organized in two parts. Part One examines the drug economy. It is cast as a lifeline for plenty of jobless Americans � driving a car loaded with cocaine from El Paso to Chicago can earn the driver $10,000. Crack cocaine, a cheaper form of the drug, became a booming market in the 1980s. By 1989, Jamaican gangs supplied crack to 47 U.S. cities, while the Bloods and the Crips ran West Coast crack houses. Part Two studies suppliers, smugglers, and law enforcement. The conclusing chapters debate drug education, treatment programs, and legalization issues. It is pointed out that over the past 35 years, the U.S. has spent approximately $500 billion on the war on drugs. Yet Americans still consume about 290 metric tons of cocaine a year. Increasingly our neighboring ccountries are suffering too as a result of the drug trade, witness Mexico with its growing drug-related violence and evidence of wide spread corruption among the police and military. The book also endeavors to correct a number of widely held, but inacccurate beliefs about cocaine use. It is pointed out that hard-drug users' wages are actually 20 percent higher than the national average, and cocaine "has become a gesture of extravagance, sophistication and conspicuous consumption, akin to drinking champagne.". A 2007 study found that 80% of cocaine in the U.S. is consumed by whites, but narcotics police have overwhelming focused on poor, inner-city neighbourhoods, typically inhabited by minority populations.

Copyright 2011, Project Cork

Freudenberg N. HIV in the epicenter of the epicenter: HIV and drug use among criminal justice populations in New York City, 1980-2007. Substance Use & Misuse 46(2-3): 159-170, 2011. (85 refs.)

During the 1990s, some of the highest rates of HIV infection in the United States were found among inmates in the New York City jail and prisons systems. This article traces the history of drug use and HIV infection among populations incarcerated in New York City jails and New York State prisons between 1980 and 2007. It describes and analyzes the policies and programs that were initiated to respond to these epidemics and assesses the lessons learned from almost three decades of experience with HIV among populations in New York's correctional facilities.

This oral history describes three periods of street outreach to injection drug users at risk for HIV in New York City: outreach in an era of public drug markets (1987-1993), outreach in an era of private markets (1993-2006), and network-driven outreach (2006-present). Individual interviews with administrators and supervisors of outreach workers are combined with field notes from the ethnographic research experiences of the first two authors to contextualize, compare, and contrast these distinct periods. The combination and triangulation of these sources of data allow for an analysis of both the specific and the wider social and cultural contexts in which outreach intervention efforts were situated. Through these lenses, the article examines some of the reasons why they were or were not successful and discusses prospects for the future.

The Native American sweat lodge ceremony or sweat therapy is being used increasingly in various medical, mental health, correctional, and substance abuse treatment centers serving both Native and non-Native clients. This article explores the sweat lodge ceremony's background, elements of Native American spirituality, origin story, cultural symbolism, prayer, and contemporary use. Current evidence of effectiveness and therapeutic benefits is presented, then implications for integrating the sweat lodge ceremony as a complementary counseling approach are discussed.

Copyright 2011, American Counseling Association

Givel MS. History of Bhutan's prohibition of cigarettes: Implications for neo-prohibitionists and their critics. International Journal of Drug Policy 22(4): 306-310, 2011. (64 refs.)

Background: Recently, cigarette neo-prohibitionists have argued that a cigarette ban can be obtained from a de-facto phase-out of cigarettes based on a combination of effective anti-tobacco regulations and high taxes in conjunction with aggressive application of nicotine replacement therapies. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether these claims were valid in Bhutan, which enacted a national cigarette sales prohibition law in 2004. Did Bhutan from 2004 to 2009 eliminate or nearly eliminate cigarette consumption and avoid a significant cigarette black market and smuggling? Methods: This study is a historical, qualitative, descriptive statistical, and archival content overview from 2004 to 2009 of smoking prevalence rates and smuggling and black market trends subsequent to the enactment of the Bhutan Penal Code Act of 2004. Results: For adults in Bhutan, tobacco prevalence rates are fairly low compared with other nations but in 2008 remained a serious health issue for those who consumed cigarettes. For minors, tobacco consumption and second hand smoke exposure in 2008 was a significant health issue. In addition, the best available evidence indicates that illegal tobacco smuggling including black market sales due to the sales ban in Bhutan remains robust. Conclusions: So far, in Bhutan, cigarette neo-prohibitionist arguments that stringent anti-tobacco tax and regulatory approaches including a sales prohibition will induce tobacco consumption to cease or nearly cease has not occurred. In addition, the best scientific evidence indicates that a harm reduction-oriented nicotine replacement therapy approach will not be entirely effective. The results of this study provide an important lesson learned for health practitioners and advocates considering or advocating, albeit a gradual, but total cigarette ban as public policy.

Copyright 2011, Elsevier Science BV

Glausser W. Cultural Encyclopedia of LSD. New York: McFarland, 2011

This is an encylopedia with over 400 entries. It covers the discovery of LSD by Albert Hoffman, when he accidentally absorbed a small quantity through his fingertips. It covers early the early scientific studies and its emergence into the popular culture in the 1960s. The entries document the influence of LSD on diverse aspects of culture, from psychiatry, to religion, philosophy, arts, entertainment and sports, to commerce, science, politics and espionage. Coverage concentrates on the peak period of 1965 to 1969, but in addition to LSD�s early years also discusses later influences.

In the modern history of our country, the subject of psychoactive substances was banned as being against the socialist-communist political ideology, and consequently the research and knowledge on the historical evolution of the use of plants and substances for medical, hedonistic and/or ritual purposes in our country was not given any encouragement. In this context of a diluted and outdated knowledge on the psychoactive substances which had been maintained for decades, the explosion of the drug addiction phenomenon encountered an idealistic perception ("it is a problem of the Western world", "we are just a transit country", etc.), which lead to a fast increase in the number of young people who tried to consume illegal drugs. The political/administrative organisations, the civil society, the NGOs and particularly the scientific experts in Romania had all a very slow and laggard response, which has lead to the current situation when drug addiction is finally recognized as a very serious issue. Particular features of the Romanian phenomenon surprisingly not due to the local tradition or spontaneous flora (as long as currently marketed products are imported) are presented in this publication, giving examples from the criminal investigation experience. An alarming issue which has been highlighted by our research points to the fact that "classical drugs", such as opioids, methadone, ketamine, MDMA, are likely to be used in Romania for "spicing up" the so-called "legal" marketed products. In the following, we shall trace the historical evolution of the use of plants and substances for medical, hedonistic and/or ritual purposes in our country. We shall also reflect on the related legislative and medical issues, and the suggested measures.

Copyright 2011, Romanian Legal Medical Society

Gray C. The Acid Diaries: A Psychonaut's Guide to the History and Use of LSD. South Paris, ME: Park Street Press, 2010

This is a memoir of someone who late in life, when he ws in his late 50s, began to experiment with LSD, using it once every two to three weeks. This is a recounting of those experiences. The author reports that his visions were weaving an ongoing story from trip to trip, revealing an underlying reality of personal and spiritual truths. Following the theories of Stanislav Grof and offering quotes from others� experiences that parallel his own--including those of Aldous Huxley, Albert Hofmann, and Gordon Wasson--he shows that trips progress through three stages: the first dealing with personal issues and pre-birth consciousness; the second with ego-loss, often with supernatural overtones; and the third with sacred, spiritual, and even apocalyptic themes. This personal experience is complemented by discussion of psychedelic use throughout history, including the ergot-spawned mass hallucinations that were common through the Middle Ages and the early use of LSD for therapeutic purposes.

This paper describes the use of brandy and other forms of alcohol in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its prime use was as a cardiac stimulant as it seemed to increase the cardiac output and blood pressure. However it was also recognised as a depressant and was used as a sedative. Reconciling these two actions caused difficulties. In addition it was used as a food for invalids.

Due to its eay availability and affordable, methamphetamine use has become a major public health concern in the United States. This book written from a biopsychosocial perspective on this drug addiction, takies into account the biochemistry of methamphetamine, the predispositions and behavioral patterns of the individual user, and the effects of the drug on the individual and larger society. There is also discussion of treatment approaches as well as prevention initiatives. There are two contributed chapters, one setting forth the acute and chronic effects associated with methamphetamine use, and the other elaborating on clinical skills and therapeutic approaches in treating methamphetamine problems.

Copyright 2011, Project Cork

Hammersley M. On Becker's studies of marijuana use as an example of analytic induction. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 41(4): 535-566, 2011. (64 refs.)

Analytic induction (AI) is an interpretation of scientific method that emerged in early twentieth-century sociology and still has some influence today. Among the studies often cited as examples are Becker's articles on marijuana use. While these have been given less attention than the work of Lindesmith on opiate addiction and Cressey on financial trust violation, Becker's work has distinctive features. Furthermore, it raises some important and interesting issues that relate not only to AI but to social scientific explanation more generally. These concern, for example, the presence and nature of causal systems in the social world, the relationship between historical and generalizing approaches, the character and role of social scientific theories, and how they are generated. In this article Becker's research is examined in detail, and these issues explored through comparisons with the work of Lindesmith and Cressey.

The book represents the first comprehensive review of the psychological and pharmacological effects of LSD. It draws on data from more than 3000 experimental and clinical studies, and has more than 1000 referenced. After its discovery in 1943 LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) became the most extensively studied psycho pharmacological agent ever and had a significant impact on neurotransmitter research. LSD has a controversial and extraordinary reputation due to the special effects it can induce on human consciousness. Its experimental use led to some ground breaking discoveries about the brain and the deeper layers of the human psyche. After its application in neuroscience, and as a tool within psychotherapy, it then increasingly was used by those outside of the labortory setting to produce euphoria, altered perception and evoke religious experiences (�consciousness expansion�). Its complex effects on sensory, emotional and cognitive functions made LSD a probe into the human psyche, a research tool, a therapeutic agent and a controversial catalyst of individual and social change. Not widely known, but during the 1980s some important new neuroleptic drugs for treating schizophrenia were developed by testing the drug on LSD-trained animals (e.g. risperidone). Today there is a resurgence of interest in LSD, including its possible uses in psychotherapy and in some headache disorders. The pharmacology of LSD is complex and its mechanisms of action are still not completely understood. During the active phase of research with LSD during the 1950s and 1960s more than 5000 scientific publications appeared. Due to the lack of any comprehensive review about this widely dispersed experimental literature, the present book focuses on a careful and systematic review of the data about all aspects of the pharmacology and psychopharmacology of LSD, including most of the animal research and virtually all human clinical studies relevant to its pharmacology and mechanisms of action. The introduction gives a concise overview of the history of the drug, its potentials and the turmoil which surrounded it.

Two of the major transformations that took place in Virginia during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries were the adoption of slave labor to produce a staple commodity (tobacco) and the emergence of a gentry class that built its wealth, power, and social influence on both slavery and export of this crop. The reasons and timing of the transition to slavery and the nature of the planters' consolidation of power within the British Empire have long been subjects of interest and debate. In this Forum these two major transformations are given close scrutiny by John C. Coombs and Douglas Bradburn. Coombs challenges the generally accepted notion that the use of enslaved labor spread only gradually during the first sixty years of the colony's history before increasing rapidly in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Bradburn examines the critical role played by the English state in intervening in the tobacco trade, part of a new system that transformed Atlantic commerce, allowed a small group of Virginia elites to consolidate their power, and sowed the seeds of future misunderstanding between Britain and the colonies. Six commentators address the two essays' interpretive arguments and the larger historiographical issues they raise.

In 2004 the Danish Parliament re-penalized possession of illegal drugs for personal consumption after 35 years of de-penalization. This article presents an analysis of this shift away from a relatively liberal drug policy and towards a more repressive drug policy and places it in a context of the shifting balances between control and welfare in Danish drug policy since 1955. The article analyzes the background for the first penalization of possession in 1955, de-penalization in 1969 and repenalization in 2004, focusing particularly on how the drug using subject was constructed at these three important moments in the history of Danish drug policy. The article furthermore analyzes the changes in 1969 and 2004 as part of more general changes of welfare policy and penal policy in Denmark. The article is based on analyses of Danish drug legislation and policy documents.

Copyright 2010, Journal of Drug Issues Inc.

Hutchison R. Bites, nibbles, sips and puffs: New exotic goods in Norway in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century. Scandinavian Journal of History 36(2): 156-185, 2011. (91 refs.)

The slow but significant changes in the material culture of European households that took place in the pre-industrial period are visible in several ways, such as in the changing patterns of housing, furnishing and clothing which have been illustrated in several studies. However, most of these studies focus on the pre-industrial economic leaders, often ignoring the changes taking place on the margins of the economic growth centres. This article seeks to rectify this by looking at changes in the material culture in one such 'marginal' country, namely Norway. The goods focused upon in this case are sugar, tobacco and coffee, which are often termed as exotic goods. These were new commodities in the 18th century and precisely because of their novelty and foreign origin, it is in many cases possible to trace how they spread in rural society, as well as how they impacted it. The emphasis has been put on rural areas for the simple reason that this was where the overall majority of Norwegians lived at the time.

Copyright 2011, Taylor & Francis

Hymowitz N. Smoking and cancer: A review of public health and clinical implications. (review). Journal of the National Medical Association 103(8): 695-700, 2011. (21 refs.)

The cultivation of tobacco dates backwards to 6000 BC. Use of tobacco for spiritual, euphoric, and medicinal purposes, and its ultimate spread to the 4 corners of the globe, lay at the heart of the current pandemic of tobacco-related disease, including lung, head and neck, and many other forms of cancer. While evidence for the carcinogenic properties of tobacco was documented as early as the 1800s, it was not until the 20th century that the role of tobacco use and smoke exposure in the growing pandemic of lung and other cancers was fully appreciated. The evidence is now indisputable, and current research and intervention activities center on mechanisms by which tobacco use and smoke cause cancer, ways of stemming the worldwide pandemic of tobacco-related disease, and how to help people with cancer quit smoking. With respect to the latter, approaches to smoking cessation that are effective for the general population of smokers are equally applicable to cancer patients, thrusting physicians and other health professionals to the forefront of the antismoking arena. However, the scale of the tobacco pandemic has grown so large that it literally will take a village, complete with heads of nations, world-governing bodies, local leaders, physicians, and many others, to pass and enforce legislation and policies necessary to stem the worldwide tobacco pandemic and to implement cessation programs for smokers and users of other forms of tobacco across the globe.

Copyright 2011, National Medical Association

Iszaj F; Demetrovics Z. Balancing between sensitization and repression: The role of opium in the life and art of Edgar Allan Poe and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Substance Use & Misuse 46(13): 1613-1618, 2011. (35 refs.)

The creative process contains both conscious and unconscious work. Therefore, artists have to face their unconscious processes and work with emotional material that is difficult to keep under control in the course of artistic creation. Bringing these contents of consciousness to the surface needs special sensitivity and special control functions while working with them. Considering these mechanisms, psychoactive substance can serve a double function in the case of artists. On the one hand, chemical substances may enhance the artists' sensitivity. On the other hand, they can help moderate the hypersensitivity and repress extreme emotions and burdensome contents of consciousness. The authors posit how the use of opiates could have influenced the life and creative work of Edgar Allan Poe and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Copyright 2011, Informa Healthcare

Kuzmarov J. The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs.. Amherst MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2009

This book addresses the image of the drug-addicted American soldier disheveled, glassy-eyed, his uniform adorned with slogans of antiwar dissent has long been associated with the Vietnam War. More specifically, it has persisted as an explanation for the U.S. defeat, the symbol of a demoralized army incapable of carrying out its military mission. The author documents that many popular assumptions about drug use in Vietnam are based more on myth than fact. Alcohol the intoxicant of choice for most GIs, and the prevalence of other drugs was quite varied. Marijuana use among troops increased over the course of the war, but was largely was confined to rear areas. The use of highly addictive drugs like heroin was never as widespread as suggested. The book says that similar to other cultural myths that emerged from the war, the concept of an addicted army was first advanced by war hawks seeking a scapegoat for the failure of U.S. policies in Vietnam. In this instance this failure to seen as linked to permissive liberal social policies and the excesses of the counterculture. Ironically, some in antiwar movement also promoted the myth, based on the belief that there was an alliance between Asian drug traffickers and the Central Intelligence Agency. This claim was not without foundation, but the book demonstrates from archival evidence that the left exaggerated the scope of addiction for its own political purposes. Drawing upon the bipartisan concern over the perceived drug crisis, the Nixon administration in the early 1970s launched a bold new program of federal antidrug measures, especially in the international realm. Initially, the War on Drugs helped divert attention away from the failed quest for peace with honor in Southeast Asia. But once institutionalized, it continued to influence political discourse as well as U.S. drug policy in the decades that followed.

Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed drugs used to treat anxiety and insomnia, induce muscle relaxation, control epileptic seizures, promote anaesthesia or produce amnesia. Benzodiazepines are also abused for recreational purposes and the number of benzodiazepine abusers is unfortunately increasing. Within weeks of chronic use, tolerance to the pharmacological effects can develop and withdrawal becomes apparent once the drug is no longer available, which are both conditions indicative of benzodiazepine dependence. Diagnosis of addiction (i.e. compulsive use despite negative consequences) may follow in vulnerable individuals. Here, we review the historical and current use of benzodiazepines from their original synthesis, discovery and commercialisation to the recent identification of the molecular mechanism by which benzodiazepines induce addiction. These results have identified the mechanisms underlying the activation of midbrain dopamine neurons by benzodiazepines, and how these drugs can hijack the mesocorticolimbic reward system. Such knowledge calls for future developments of new receptor subtype specific benzodiazepines with a reduced addiction liability.

Substance abuse among American Indians has a long history that dates back to the colonial era. American Indian youth today continue to have one of the highest substance abuse rates when compared with other groups. Researchers have implemented American Indian youth substance abuse interventions that previously have worked in the general population, but studies have found that they are generally unprepared and poorly designed for American Indian populations. The lack of inclusion of American Indian populations in the interventional studies, poor understanding of American Indian I diversity and cultures, and lack of consideration for the unique historical and sociopolitical context of each tribe were cited as reasons the interventions failed. It has been suggested that historical trauma plays a considerable role in American Indian youth substance abuse; however, much of this theoretical framework has yet to be rigorously tested. Contemporary trauma appears to contribute significantly more to American Indian youth substance abuse. The data on American Indian substance abuse are limited, but what is currently available appears to show a vast heterogeneity in the level of substance abuse among American Indian youth that varies across different American Indian tribes and geographical distribution. In summary, this article seeks to describe the special relationship American Indian tribes have with the federal government, review historical and contemporary trauma, review American Indian youth substance abuse and interventions today, and finally describe a unique intervention strategy that tribes in the Pacific Northwest are implementing in order to combat American Indian youth substance abuse.

This book based on the author's field work describes the circumstances of Nuosu youth of a rural, poor farming community in southwest China. This community was defined by the post-revolutionary Chinese governmental as a "minority" community. Historically, the Nuosu had very limited with the Han, the majority population in China. Since the late 1980s, young Nuosu men became engaged in a circular migratory pattern, generally spending between two and four months at a time in Chinese cities attempting to make money before returning home. Often lacking fluency in Mandarin, educational opportunities and social networks in the urban centers, many young migrant Nuosu workers supplement unsteady day labor jobs with participation in theft and other illicit activities. Before long, not only the young men who travelled to the cities, but also their families at home became involved in the consumption and distribution of heroin. The heroin trade appears to have been one of the few sectors of the rural economy that improved the material quality of life in Limu during the Reform era. With the rise in heroin use, HIV and AIDS also became a growing problem in these communities. The author describes the toll on individuals, families and community relationships. Beyond the stigma arising from the minority status, the further stigma of HIV/AIDS was introduced in the process of governmental efforts at public health education. An unfortunate result was the fraying of kinship relationships which had provided a supportive network for AIDS patients. The author traces several themes, the impetus of youth to migrate as a means of improving their life circumstances; the fraying of community life, the inability of this minority population to reap the benefits accruing to the broader population. Due to high mortality rates, the numbers of heroin users has declined. Youth however have turned to newer drugs, namely ecstasy and methamphetamine.

William Stewart Halsted is considered to be one of the most influential and innovative surgeons the USA has ever produced. His contributions to surgery are abundant, ranging from sophisticated surgical techniques in the field of breast surgery, surgery of the digestive apparatus and traumatological interventions, to the introduction of gloves in the operating theatre. Here we present Dr Halsted, together with his aide Dr Hall, as the discoverers of the technique for blocking the inferior alveolar nerve and the antero-superior dental nerve using cocaine as an anaesthetic. The anaesthetic technique, described perfectly by both surgeons in 1885, has been revolutionary in the practice of odontology since its introduction, offering dentists the possibility of performing invasive interventions to the maxillary without pain.

Copyright 2011, Nature Publishing

Markel H. An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine. New York: Pantheon, 2011

In the latter part of the 1800s cocaine was being heralded as the wonder drug. This medical history tells the story of the years-long cocaine use of Sigmund Freud, young, ambitious neurologist, and William Halsted, the equally young, pathfinding surgeon. Both men were practicing medicine at the same time in the 1880s � Freud at the Vienna General Hospital, Halsted at New York�s Bellevue Hospital. This was also an era, when personal experimentaion was a common methodology in medical research. Freud began to experiment with cocaine as a way of studying its therapeutic uses�as an antidote for the overprescribed morphine, which had made addicts of so many, and as a treatment for depression. Halsted, an acclaimed surgeon even then, was curious about cocaine�s effectiveness as an anesthetic and injected the drug into his arm to prove his theory. Neither Freud nor Halsted, nor their colleagues, had any idea of the drug�s potential to dominate and endanger their lives. The author described how each came to know about cocaine; how Freud found that the drug cured his indigestion, dulled his aches, and relieved his depression. Freud, after a few months of taking the magical drug, published a treatise on it, �ber Coca, in which he described his �most gorgeous excitement.� Of note, that marked a shift in a shift in his interest, from studying the anatomy of the brain to exploring the human psyche. Halsted, whose contributions to modern surgical practice can not be over-stated, was widely recognized and revered. He became the head of surgery at the newly built Johns Hopkins Hospital and a professor of surgery, also he repeatedly committed himself to Butler Hospital, an insane asylum, to withdraw from his out-of control cocaine use. The book tells the tragic and also the heroic story of each man, accidentally struck down in his prime by an insidious malady: tragic because of the time, relationships, and health that cocaine forced each to squander; heroic in the intense battle each man waged to overcome his affliction as he conquered his own world with visionary healing gifts.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to illustrate how a person's standing in a small, close-knit community can distort local medical and legal attitudes to their diagnosis. We examined various historical texts describing Edward Davies (1855-1904), Mayor of Fremantle, and the medical, legal and family responses to his illness. Conclusions: When Davies developed an apparently serious mental illness, his family was able to keep this behaviour hidden for some time. However, when evidence of his illness finally erupted into the public eye, it led to a ground-breaking 1903 case in the WA Supreme Court in Lunacy. It is clear that Davies ' defenders wanted him to be diagnosed and treated as an alcoholic, when in fact he may have had late onset psychosis, complicated by alcohol abuse. With the increasing amount of historical material available through Australian digitized newspaper collections, new scope is opening up for retrospective diagnosis.

Following more than two decades of generally increasing trends in the use and abuse of methamphetamine in certain parts of the country, prevalence indicators for the drug began to decrease in the mid-2000's-but was this decrease signaling the end of the "meth problem"? This paper has compiled historical and recent data from supply and demand indicators to provide a broader context within which to consider the changes in trends over the past half decade. Data suggest supply-side accommodation to changes in precursor chemical restrictions, with prevalence indicators beginning to attenuate in the mid-2000's and then increasing again by 2009-2010. Results support the need for continuing attention to control and interdiction efforts appropriate to the changing supply context and to continuing prevention efforts and increased number of treatment programs.

Copyright 2011, Elsevier Science

McGovern PE. Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2009

This book provides a global tour, drawing upon archaeological, chemical, artistic, and textual clues, to illustrate the origins and use of alcoholic beverages. The case is made that the integral role of alcoholic drinks have played an integral role in human evolution. We discover, for example, that the cereal staples of the modern world were probably domesticated for their potential in making quantities of alcoholic beverages. These include rice wines of China and Japan, the corn beers of the Americas, and the millet and sorghum drinks of Africa. Humans also learned how to make mead from honey and wine from exotic fruits of all kinds-even from the sweet pulp of the cacao (chocolate) fruit in the New World. Beyond being a mind-altering beverage, the author describes its role as a medicinal agent, religious symbol, social lubricant, and an artistic inspiration, illustrating its central role in history. The biomolecular archaeological approach is used to describe the discovery of the most ancient, chemically-attested alcoholic beverage in the world, dating back to about 7000 B.C. Based on the analyses of some of the world�s earliest pottery from Jiahu in the Yellow River valley of China, a mixed fermented beverage of rice, hawthorn fruit/grape, and honey was reconstructed. The author has been involved in identifying a fermented beverage made from the fruit pod of the cacao tree, as based on analyses of pottery sherds from the site of Puerto Escondido in Honduras dating back to ca. 1400 B.C. This is the earliest chemically attested instance of such a chocolate beverage in the Americas.

The use of performance�improving drugs in sports dates back to the early Olympians who took an herbal tonic before competitions to augment athletic prowess. But the permissibility of doing so came into question only in the twentieth century as the popularity of anabolic steroid use and blood doping among athletes grew. Sports officials and others�aided by the development of technologies to test participants for proscribed substances�became concerned over the physical safety of athletes and competitive fairness in sporting events. This book explores the culture, ethics, and policy issues surrounding doping by competitive athletics. It also includes material drawn from accounts of former elite athletes, who discuss the meaning and value of natural talents; genetic hierarchies; and the essence of fair competition. The book examines the the history and current state of drug use in sports, analyzes the distinctions between acceptable and unacceptable usage, evaluates the ethical arguments for and against permitting athletes to avail themselves of new means of improving perforamance, and also discusses possible future doping technologies along with the issues that they are likely to raise. There is consideration of the motivation for doping, in light of the "fair opportunity principle," and how that relates to the concept of an equal opportunity to perform. The book is organzied into three parts. Part I deals the historical and cultural context, including consideration of the role of physicains, scientists, trainers, and other non-athletes, performance-enhancing technological, the ethics of human subject research, and perspectives of athletes. Part II sets forth several conceptual maps and the implications of each. This includes consideraton of the concept of fairness; ethical, legal and policy concerns related to genetic endowment in sports; ethics and the endurance-enhancing technologies in sport. Part III looks to the future examining the concepts and tools of gene therapy, as well as technologies to enhance oxygen delivery and methods to detect these technologies.

This article explores the Advertising Council's first national drug abuse prevention campaign in the 1970s. Scholarship thus far has demonstrated the ways in which the issue of drug abuse represented a chief political strategy for President Nixon. Evidence from major trade press publications, congressional hearings, and an array of archival sources suggest that this campaign was also part of a public relations crusade on behalf of the advertising industry in response to public criticism of its role in abetting a culture of drug dependence. These institutional and political pressures helped shape drug abuse prevention in the 1970s and for the decades that followed.

Prior to European's exploration of the Americas, both tobacco and chocolate were unknown in Europe. This volume traces their introduction into Europe and the dramatic impact that both had. Quite rapidly both were adopted by European cultures, despite their being considered as products of a savage cultures. Tobacco, handled as a governmental monopology came to be a major source of governmental income in Europe. Within a century, it is estimated that over a million and a half pounds of both tobacco and coca were shipped to Seville, Spain. Interestingly, another plant with hallucatory properties, cohoba, was not embraced as tobacco was. Used by medicine men in Hispaniola, it was seen as evidence of the satanic influences on the native peoples, was one of any number of factors which could/would justify colonization. While recounting the history behind the introduction of tobacco and chocolate, it also describes the influence this trade had on both cultures, the social and cultural interactions.

Copyright 2011, Project Cork

Oreskes N; Conway EM. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010

This book might be described as the product of careful, thoughtful investigative journalism. The authors descibe how opposition to scientifically well-supported claims � whether the dangers of cigarette smoking, the difficulties of the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars"), the effects of acid rain, the existence of the ozone hole, the problems caused by secondhand smoke, and the existence of anthropogenic climate change � has been was supported by the efforts of a loose-knit group of high-level scientists. The book reconts how these "scientific advisers," with deep connections in politics and industry, have been mobilized to abort the public discussion, by distorting or denying well-established scientific knowledge. One of the documents made public in the tobacco settlement agreements, includes the statement of a tobacco industry executive that "Doubt is out product." These efforts have created the impression of scientific controversery where none has existed. In making their case, the authors rely on a host of documents in the public domain.

In drug addiction, the transition from casual drug use to dependence has been linked to a shift away from positive reinforcement and toward negative reinforcement. That is, drugs ultimately are relied on to prevent or relieve negative states that otherwise result from abstinence (e.g., withdrawal) or from adverse environmental circumstances (e.g., stress). Recent work has suggested that this "dark side" shift also is a key in the development of food addiction. Initially, palatable food consumption has both positively reinforcing, pleasurable effects and negatively reinforcing, "comforting" effects that can acutely normalize organism responses to stress. Repeated, intermittent intake of palatable food may instead amplify brain stress circuitry and downregulate brain reward pathways such that continued intake becomes obligatory to prevent negative emotional states via negative reinforcement. Stress, anxiety and depressed mood have shown high comorbidity with and the potential to trigger bouts of addiction-like eating behavior in humans. Animal models indicate that repeated, intermittent access to palatable foods can lead to emotional and somatic signs of withdrawal when the food is no longer available, tolerance and dampening of brain reward circuitry, compulsive seeking of palatable food despite potentially aversive consequences, and relapse to palatable food-seeking in response to anxiogenic-like stimuli. The neurocircuitry identified to date in the "dark" side of food addiction qualitatively resembles that associated with drug and alcohol dependence. The present review summarizes Bart Hoebel's groundbreaking conceptual and empirical contributions to understanding the role of the "dark side" in food addiction along with related work of those that have followed him.

Plants provide the food, shelter, medicines, and biomass that underlie sustainable life. One of the earliest and often overlooked uses of plants is the production of smoke, dating to the time of early hominid species. Plant-derived smoke has had an enormous socio-economic impact throughout human history, being burned for medicinal and recreational purposes, magico-religious ceremonies, pest control, food preservation, and flavoring, perfumes, and incense. This illustrated global compendium documents and describes approximately 2,000 global uses for over 1,400 plant species. The Uses and Abuses of Plant-Derived Smoke is accessibly written and provides a wealth of information on human uses for smoke. Divided into nine main categories of use, the compendium lists plant-derived smoke's medicinal, historical, ceremonial, ritual and recreational uses. Plant use in the production of incense and to preserve and flavor foods and beverages is also included. Each entry includes full binomial names and family, an identification of the person who named the plant, as well as numerous references to other scholarly texts. It includes material on tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum).

Copyright 2011, Project Cork

Piper A. 'A growing vice': the Truth about Brisbane girls and drunkenness in the early twentieth century. Journal of Australian Studies 34(4): 485-497, 2010. (82 refs.)

This article discusses the escalating concern about female drunkenness in early-twentieth century Brisbane. It argues that the tabloid Truth in particular created an image of the problem drinker as a teenage girl. In the process, the Truth constructed these adolescent girls or young women as if they were devoid of any personal responsibility for their drinking. It transferred the blame for this onto traditional adversaries of prevailing social values: the illicit lover, knowing woman and racial other. This denial of female agency negated the challenge that girls' drinking might otherwise have posed to the gender order by reinforcing belief in girls' presumed passivity. It also disguised the fact that young women were willingly deciding to drink as part of their membership in subcultures in which social drinking played a significant role.

This book reviews the history of licit and illict drug use in Australia, and sets this within the context of patterns of use internationally as well as the global drug trade that exisits. It begins with a discussion of current substance use in Australia, the patterns of use in terms of differnt drug classes, and discusses theories about the motivations for substance use. There is also consideration of the contraints and regulation of drug use. Of note, less than 10 years ago, Australia was beseiged by a heroin draught, when supplies of heroin markedly declined. This provided an opportunity to see how this phenomenon impacted use patterns of an array of drugs. The history of drug use is also considered, dating back to the presence of its own opium-growing industry. The origins of the countries drug laws are considered, including the extent to which these were the product of racism. It also considers the current paradoxes within Australian identify. One the one hand it holds an image of fit, sun-bronzed athletic types, cavorting in the surf; on the other hand it is a nation of people whose per capita drug consumption often equals and more often than not surpasses that of most other nations.

Copyright 2011, Project Cork

Rasmussen N. Medical science and the military: The allies' use of amphetamine during World War II. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 42(2): 205-233, 2011. (114 refs.)

Although amphetamine was thoroughly tested by leading scientists for its effects in boosting or maintaining physical and mental performance in fatigued subjects, the results never provided solid grounds for approving the drug's use, and, in any case, came too late to be decisive. The grounds on which amphetamine was actually adopted by both British and American militaries had less to do with the science of fatigue than with the drug's mood-altering effects, as judged by military men. It increased confidence and aggression, and elevated "morale."

The harmful outcomes of nicotine self administration have been the focus of sustained global health education campaigns that have targeted tobacco smoking and to a lesser extent, smokeless tobacco use. 'Smokeless tobacco' infers that the nicotine is not burnt, and administration can be through a range of methods including chewing. The chewing of wild tobacco plants (Nicotiana spp.) is practiced across a broad inland area of Central Australia by traditional Aboriginal groups. Collectively these plants are known by a variety of names - one common name being 'pituri'. This is the first paper to examine the historical literature and consider the linkage between pituri use and health outcomes. Using a narrative approach, this paper reviews the literature generated since 1770 surrounding the term pituri and the behaviours associated with its use. The review examines the scientific literature, as well as the diaries and journals of nineteenth century explorers, expedition notes, and early Australian novels to expound the scientific evidence and broaden the sense of understanding related to pituri, particularly the behavioural elements. The evaluation considers the complexities of ethnobotany pertaining to language and distance and the ethnopharmacology of indigenous plant usage. The review compares the use of burnt and smokeless tobacco to pituri and establishes the foundation for research into the clinical significance and health outcomes of pituri use. Additionally, this review provides contemporary information for clinicians providing care for patients who chew pituri.

Copyright 2010, Biomedical Central

Romaniello MP; Starks T, eds. Tobacco in Russian History and Culture from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. New York: Routledge, 2011

The World Health Organization estimates that the rate of smoking in Russia is 71% for men and 30% for women. At the turn of the 21st century, tobacco-related mortality in Russia was estimated to be three and a half times greater than the global average. This book traces the history of tobacco use in Russia, from it's introduction in the late 1600s to the present, post-Soviet era. The attitudes toward tobacco/smoking are described, from the attitudes toward tobacco use reflecting and influencing cultural and political life, tobacco's representation in the arts and literature. The book traces the manufacture of tobacco, through to the emergence of transnational corporation, as well as tobacco advertising, and how this reflects the manufacturer's projections of class and gender. Anti-smoking efforts are also described, and the nature of these voices at different periods.

Background: In some countries, "Big Events" like crises and transitions have been followed by large increases in drug use, drug injection and HIV/AIDS. Argentina experienced an economic crisis and political transition in 2001/ 2002 that affected how people use their time. This paper studies how time use changes between years 2001 and 2004, subsequent to these events, were associated with drug consumption in poor neighbourhoods of Greater Buenos Aires. Methods: In 2003-2004, 68 current injecting drug users (IDUs) and 235 young non-IDUs, aged 21-35, who lived in impoverished drug-impacted neighbourhoods in Greater Buenos Aires, were asked about time use then and in 2001. Data on weekly hours spent working or looking for work, doing housework/childcare, consuming drugs, being with friends, and hanging out in the neighbourhood, were studied in relation to time spent using drugs. Field observations and focus groups were also conducted. Results: After 2001, among both IDUs and non-IDUs, mean weekly time spent working declined significantly (especially among IDUs); time spent looking for work increased, and time spent with friends and hanging out in the neighbourhood decreased. We found no increase in injecting or non-injecting drug consumption after 2001. Subjects most affected by the way the crises led to decreased work time and/or to increased time looking for work-and by the associated increase in time spent in one's neighbourhood-were most likely to increase their time using drugs. Conclusions: Time use methods are useful to study changes in drug use and their relationships to every day life activities. In these previously-drug-impacted neighbourhoods, the Argentinean crisis did not lead to an increase in drug use, which somewhat contradicts our initial expectations. Nevertheless, those for whom the crises led to decreased work time, increased time looking for work, and increased time spent in indoor or outdoor neighbourhood environments, were likely to spend more time using drugs. These data suggest that young adults in traditionally less-impoverished neighbourhoods may be more vulnerable to Big Events than those in previously drug-impacted impoverished neighbourhoods. Since Big Events will continue to occur, research on the pathways that determine their sequelae is needed.

This article reviews the cultural history of man's relationship with tobacco and the steps in the discovery of tobacco addiction. Nicotine dependence (ND) or nicotine addiction (NA), among other forms of drug addiction, continues to be a significant public health problem in the world, as it is associated with major severe diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Evidence for a genetic influence on smoking behavior and ND has prompted a search for susceptibility genes. Proof has recently accumulated that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genetic region encoding the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunits alpha5, alpha3, and beta4 are associated with smoking and ND. In this review, we consider tobacco as the archetype of substance addiction and describe the evolution of the tobacco habit from elite users to lower socioeconomic abusers (by mass marketing and specific targeting of vulnerable groups by the tobacco industry) to exemplify detrimental behavior with major threats to public health. Finally, we discuss the reasons for the difficulty of quitting addictions/habits and highlight possible solutions.

Some smokeless tobacco products, such as Swedish snus, are today considered to be associated with substantially fewer health hazards than cigarettes. This risk differential has contributed to the scientific debate about the possibilities of harm reduction within the tobacco area. Although current manufacturing methods for snus build on those that were introduced more than a century ago, the low levels of unwanted substances in modern Swedish snus are largely due to improvements in production techniques and selection of raw materials in combination with several programs for quality assurance and quality control. These measures have been successively introduced during the past 30-40 years. In the late 1990s they formed the basis for a voluntary quality standard for Swedish snus named GothiaTek (R). In recent years the standard has been accepted by the members of the trade organization European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC) so it has now evolved into an industrial standard for all smokeless tobacco products in Europe. The initial impetus for the mentioned changes of the production was quality problems related to microbial activity and formation of ammonia and nitrite in the finished products. Other contributing factors were that snus came under the jurisdiction of the Swedish Food Act in 1971, and concerns that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s about health effects of tobacco, and the significance of agrochemical residues and other potential toxicants in food stuffs. This paper summarizes the historical development of the manufacture of Swedish snus, describes the chemical composition of modern snus, and gives the background and rationale for the GothiaTek (R) standard, including the selection of constituents for which the standard sets limits. The paper also discusses the potential future of this voluntary standard in relation to current discussions about tobacco harm reduction and regulatory science in tobacco control.

Copyright 2011, BioMed Central

Sanders JL. What might have been: Sullivan may have impacted modern prenatal alcohol research under different circumstances. (editorial). International Journal of Epidemiology 40(2): 283-285, 2011. (21 refs.)

Functioning at the epicenter of social and drug experimentation, the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic and its larger entity, the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics (HAEC), founded by David E. Smith, M.D., in June 1967, exerted from its beginnings a national influence far beyond its size and scope. Not only did HAFC serve as the prototype for a national and international free and community clinic movement, its practitioners' understanding and treatment innovations for substance abuse provided decades of new approaches for coming to grips with the rapidly evolving national and international drug scene. HAFC's pioneering impact on community drug abuse treatment was amplified by the dissemination of seminal articles in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, also founded by Dr. Smith in 1967, and by a comprehensive series of medical training conferences sponsored over the years by Dr. Smith and the Clinics. As the Clinics' CEO and subsequently as Director of Training and Education and finally as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, it was my honor and privilege to play a role in the Clinics' phenomenal rise and sustained influence on this nation's drug abuse treatment policies and treatment approaches. The following is a brief review of that role and the circumstances surrounding it.

For more than 40 years the Texas Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) has given special attention to assessment and evaluation of drug user populations, addiction treatment services and various cognitive and behavioral interventions. Emphasis has been on studies in real-world settings and the use of multivariate methodologies to address evaluation issues within the context of longitudinal natural designs. Historically, its program of addiction treatment research may be divided into three sequential epochs-the first era dealt mainly with client assessment and its role in treatment outcome and evaluation (1969-89), the second focused upon modeling the treatment process and the importance of conceptual frameworks (1989-2009) in explaining the relationships among treatment environment, client attributes, treatment process and outcome, and the third (and current) era has expanded into studying tactical deployment of innovations and implementation. Recent projects focus upon adapting and implementing innovations for improving early engagement in adolescent residential treatment settings and drug-dependent criminal justice populations. Related issues include the spread of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and other infectious diseases, organizational and systems functioning, treatment costs and process related to implementation of evidence-based practices.

This article, reprinted from the Spring 1969 issue of the Journal (vol. 2, issue 2) when it was still the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs-is among the first to describe high-dose, intravenous methamphetamine abuse in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco. Methamphetamine use was increasing in 1967 and 1968, sometimes orally as an adulterant of psychedelic drugs or as a primary drug of abuse, but it was increasingly being abused in an intravenous, high-dose binge pattern that proved pernicious, not only to the users, but to the hippies and other members of the Haight-Ashbury community. Even among drug-using Haight-Ashbury subcultures, the high-dose methamphetamine abuser was marginalized, but became increasingly visible and unavoidable because of violence associated with dealing methamphetamine and because of the users' hyperactivity and paranoia. Methamphetamine was not a new drug. Oral methamphetamine, under the pharmaceutical trade name of Desoxyn (R), and methamphetamine, in oral tablets and in ampoules for intravenous administration under the trade name of Methedrine (R), had been available for years. Injectable Methedrine was prescribed for treatment of heroin addiction by a few San Francisco physicians and that created concern among San Francisco's medical community and law enforcement. Clearly, prescribing a stimulant for treatment of heroin dependence was not a good idea, repeating Sigmund Freud's misadventure treating his friend's morphine addiction with cocaine. But there was little evidence that prescription methamphetamine use was creating a major public health problem. Increasing restrictions on methamphetamine's medical use and eventual withdrawal of Methedrine from the pharmaceutical market decreased availability of prescription methamphetamine and increased the market for illicit methamphetamine, known variously as "meth," "crank" or "speed." In the late '60s, Dr. Roger Smith, a criminologist who was the Director of the Amphetamine Research Project at the University of California Medical Center, led a team of researchers who conducted interviews with drug users in the Haight-Ashbury. In this important early paper, he clearly describes the social contexts of intravenous methamphetamine use and the recruitment of new users by friends. This presages later waves of methamphetamine abuse within the gay community and the otherwise inexplicable continued abuse of methamphetamine to the present despite its obvious destructiveness to users. The article is being reprinted here because of its historic importance.

Copyright 2011, Haight-Ashbury Publishing

Snelders S; Pieters T. Speed in the Third Reich: Metamphetamine (Pervitin) use and a drug history from below. Social History of Medicine 24(3): 686-699, 2011. (62 refs.)

This article is an analysis of the use of Pervitin (metamphetamine) in National Socialist Germany after the introduction of the drug in 1938. Whereas earlier studies have focused on the supply of the drug, this study focuses on demand. Both an iatrogenic and a 'Nazigenic' interpretation of the history of metamphetamine use are reviewed. It is concluded that the use of Pervitin in the Third Reich was not only 'pushed' on the population by the Nazi political and military authorities, but also became endemic in German society as it addressed the needs and problems of various users including employees, housewives, and soldiers. The drug was a cultural ambiguity of life in Nazi Germany, integrated in everyday life, notwithstanding its regulation by drug laws.

Objective: Previous research suggests that a strong relation exists between alcohol consumption and suicide in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. This study extends this analysis across a much longer historical time frame by examining the relationship between heavy drinking and suicide in tsarist and post-World War 11 Russia. Method: Using alcohol poisoning mortality data as a proxy for heavy drinking, time-series analytical modeling techniques were used to examine the strength of the alcohol-suicide relation in the provinces of European Russia in the period 1870-1894 and for Russia in 1956-2005. Results: During 1870-1894, a decreasing trend was recorded in heavy drinking in Russia that contrasted with the sharp increase observed in this phenomenon in the post-World War 11 period. A rising trend in suicide was recorded in both study periods, although the increase was much greater in the latter period. The strength of the heavy drinking suicide relation nevertheless remained unchanged across time, with a 10% increase in heavy drinking resulting in a 3.5% increase in suicide in tsarist Russia and a 3.8% increase in post-World War II Russia. Conclusions: Despite the innumerable societal changes that have occurred in Russia across the two study periods and the growth in the level of heavy drinking, the strength of the heavy drinking-suicide relation has remained unchanged across time. This suggests the continuation of a highly detrimental drinking culture where the heavy episodic drinking of distilled spirits (vodka) is an essential element in the alcohol-suicide association.

Copyright 2011, Alcohol Research Documentation

Sullivan WC. A note on the influence of maternal inebriety on the offspring. (reprint from 1899). International Journal of Epidemiology 40(2): 278-282, 2011. (12 refs.)

Author's Introduction: The object of the following paper is to present the result of a number of observations touching certain aspects of the question of habitual inebriety, notably the r�le of maternal alcoholism as an agent in race degeneracy. . . . I have selected from the female population of Liverpool Prison, amongst whom habitual inebriety is very prevalent, a series of cases of chronic drunkards who have borne children; and from the history of these children, and more particularly from the indications given by the infant mortality, I have sought to illustrate the mode in which the maternal intoxication appears to have reacted on the development of the offspring. In the selection I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to choose cases in which alcoholism occurred uncomplicated by other degenerative factors. Author's Conclusion: The observations which we have thus briefly analysed enable us to form a fairly clear idea of the mode in which maternal inebriety reacts upon the offspring. We are familiar with the fact, clearly established by Morel, that the chronic alcoholism of one or both parents frequently appears as the first moment in the degenerative career of a family; that it represents a state of artificial degradation of the organism, capable of transmission in augmented force to the descendants, and culminating in some four generations in the extinction of the stock. In the case of maternal inebriety we have the same mode of action to consider, but with it, and very much more potent, we have the continued toxic influence exercised on the developing embryo throughout pregnancy. The brilliant researches of F�r� in the field of experimental teratology have sufficiently demonstrated the gravity of this influence. We have, further, to bear in mind the possible effect of alcoholic excesses during lactation. Lastly, reinforcing all these modes of influence, we have the detrimental effects, positive and negative, of the deterioration of the milieu as an indirect consequence of the mother's drunkenness.

Copyright 2011, Oxford Press

Travis T. The Language of the Heart: A Cultural History of the Recovery Movement from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey.. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010

This book, authored by a cultural historian, traces the history of recovery movements in the United States, from the earliest days of Alcoholics Anonymous to the present day, and examines their connections to broader historical and cultural currents. It is based on the extensive examination of archival documents. The author discusses the relationship of the recovery movement to the broad American tradition of self-help, highlighting the roles that gender, mysticism, and print culture have played in that development. Organized into three parts, Part I examines the origins of the recovery movement in the experiences of Alcoholics Anonymous, its philosophy, its postulating alcoholism as a disease, but different than the usual definitions of disease, as it is not limited to the physical body. The debt to earlier Protestant Evangelical fellowships is recognized, but the differences are are significant. Shorn from specific religious content, it embraces spirituality. The goal was not only embrace sobriety, but also to renounce toxic self-centeredness in favor of humility and service. Part II focus upon the importance of print media in the history of the recovery movement. This too represents a legacy from the evangelical Protestantism and from "new thought Christianity" which William James discussed. While formed in 1935, by 1951, AA had begun publishing conference approved literature. For a group with little formal organization, this was in effect its "glue". In 1971, Hazelden a leading treatment program also established a publishing arm. The expansion of the recovery movement beyond AA is also discussed. There were other twelve-step programs modeled after AA, but also growing attention to behavioral addiction. Of note was the attention to co-dependency, a word that has become part of the culture. Part III considers the nature of the recovery movement in the past decade. A component is seen as attention to empowerment, and efforts to escape/confront the psychological consequences of social conditions and social hierarchies. The thread which ties these to earlier efforts is the appeal to spiritual solutions to problems of gender and power.

The 1960s were a time of social upheaval, wars, vibrant creativity and missed opportunity. Mainstream culture and a psychedelic drug-using counterculture shared a belief in "better living through chemistry," but they disagreed about the particular chemistry. The Vietnam war and the cold war with the Soviet Union, racial discrimination, and gender roles fueled political activism. "Yes we can" was not a slogan of the time but political activists clearly believed they could change the beliefs, attitudes and behavior of mainstream culture; and they did. Hippie counterculture on the other hand was largely alienated and strove primarily to develop a separate culture with its own mores, beliefs and lifestyles. Although there was some overlap between hippies and activists, hippies didn't generally have the same sense of political empowerment. Hippie enclaves developed in New York; Boston; Seattle; Austin, Texas and elsewhere; but the epicenter was arguably the Haight-Asbury District of San Francisco. Psychedelic drugs, marijuana and the Vietnam war were among many wedge issues. This paper conjures up a personal history related to the evolution of the hippie counterculture, changing drug use patterns in the Haight-Ashbury, and the origins of a technique of withdrawing patients from barbiturates and other sedative-hypnotics using phenobarbital variously known as the "Phenobarbital Withdrawal Protocol, or the "Smith and Wesson Protocol."

The article considers the rapid increase in the English market for alcohol and tobacco in I620s and the set of concurrent influences shaping their consumption. It suggests that intoxicants were not merely a source of solace for 'the poor' or the lubricant of traditional community, as historians often imply. Rather, the growth in the market for beer, wine, and tobacco was driven by those affluent social groups regarded as the legitimate governors of the English commonwealth. For men of a certain disposition and means, the consumption of intoxicants became a legitimate - indeed valorized and artful - aspect of their social identity: an identity encapsulated by the Renaissance concept of 'wit'. These new styles of drinking were also implicated in the proliferation (in theory and practice) of 'societies' and 'companies', by which contemporaries meant voluntary and purposeful association. These arguments are made by unpacking the economic, social, and cultural contexts informing the humorous dialogue Wine, beere, ale and tobacco. Contending for superiority. What follows demonstrates that the ostensibly frivolous subject of male drinking casts new light on the nature of early modern social change, in particular the nature of the 'civilizing process'.